This is the apex of anti-progressivism: let’s drag people for making progress.

He was also in power during a vastly different time in world history, when trust in institutions was significantly higher, the Internet had much less reach and influence, and jingoism was broadly popular in America

And expecting teenagers to fully understand the ins and outs of a foreign administration is insane. 

Just think of it, they weren't teaching US history in another country's curriculum, those monsters! We're the center of the world!

High school was pre-Shrub era for me but living in Alabama in the same age range I had a steady diet of right wing Republican evangelical views, a whole lot was glossed over. Have changed a lot of my views since.

I learned more about Iran-Contra from rappers than in school. If it happened after Vietnam, it just wasn’t in the textbooks (I graduated high school in 2002 for reference.)

Yep, I went through elementary and high school in the 80's and never learned about Perestroika, Iran-Contra, Tienanmen Square, etc. 

I was much more aware of current events than the average high school student (CAN YOU TELL), but we talked about Bush and Blair and Iraq pretty regularly outside of class because it was so tough to ignore. But that was in an urban high school in the US and my friends and I were all clearly nerds. No idea what British…

I honestly think people have nearly forgotten what the world was like before ~2015. Yes, George Bush is a bad man who did terrible things and caused the unnecessary deaths of many thousands of people. He was also in power during a vastly different time in world history, when trust in institutions was significantly…

It's ridiculous to expect school to teach us everything about everything. Everyone has gaps in their education and knowledge. Kudos to her for realising she didn't know enough about a topic and reading up about it

I really want to ask THESE SPECIFIC TWITTER USERS a single question about Tony Blair.

I really want to ask the average American in their 20s, 20 years ago, questions about Tony Blair. I’m willing to bet there’s a scary number of Americans who think the Queen runs the show over there.

Yep, this.

Not even really her 20's, bush took office when she was 14 and left when she was 22.

She’s right, you know. I’m twenty years older than she, and I’m still discovering stuff that I was not taught properly in school. And remember that Britain was basically our only ally for Gulf War II, the Bush Family Boogaloo.

Given how many grown adults in the US were completely obtuse to Bush then and remain so now, I’m inclined to give the famous actress from a different country a break.

I think she’d have been much better just mass replying with something along the lines of “Did not grow up in America, can you explain the effects that Tory policies had on the neighborhoods I grew up in?”

So now we’re shitting on people for reaching the right conclusion but not being super aware of world events in their 20's. Just wanna be clear on this. That’s our new bar. You suck if you didn’t know about stuff in your 20's that you should have. 

Thank you, Allison Jean. I hope all the cops and others who are swooning over (or covering themselves with) the hugs and forgiveness are reminded of these words from Botham’s mom.

We only talk about the brother and how he forgave her- so we can all move on.
He explicitly stated he doesn’t speak for the rest of his family.
But we ignore that many of them most definitely did not see this end as just, and most definitely wanted her to have a longer sentence. We ignore the shock and horror of his…